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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697599">Proper and Educated</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/schrijverr/pseuds/schrijverr'>schrijverr</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mechanisms (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Jonny d'Ville Gets A Hug, allusion to abuse, also this is my first work in this fandom, so it might be a bit ooc, talk about death and killing oneself, watch out!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:00:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,798</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697599</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/schrijverr/pseuds/schrijverr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When writing their introduction songs Tim and Jonny get into a fight about where Jonny is from. When he gets upset and leaves, Tim goes after him to comfort him and apologize.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jonny d'Ville &amp; Gunpowder Tim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>171</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Proper and Educated</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>You can find this on my tumblr as well, which is also @schrijverr! Hope you pop in and say hi :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It began soon after the Mechanisms had rid themselves of their creator. They were writing songs together and had decided they would need to introduce themselves through one, since a singing introduction would be the only good introduction possible.</p><p>If you wanted a song, you had to write your own one and soon they’d come together to share the lyrics and brainstorm over melodies. They’d already squabbled over Tims song, since it would be a long one and Jonny had found that unfair. Both he and Tim had been shot by Ashes and Tim got to keep his song, but only because The Toy Soldier was introduced as well.</p><p>Now they were squabbling again this time over Jonnys song. Tim said: “You have to tell at least some version of the truth, Jonny. I don’t care if it fits with your aesthetic, you can’t lie about where you came from.”</p><p>“Who said I'm not from New Texas?” Jonny exclaimed indignantly, his normal manic smile at any sort of conflict fading fast.</p><p>“I did.” Tim shot back, “You don’t even try to sound like you’re from there, at least lie convincingly.”</p><p>“What do you mean, I don’t sound like I’m from there?” Jonny yelled angrily.</p><p>“I’ve been there, they all have a weird accent, you don’t have it. You sound nothing like them, you’re not from there now stop making shit up.” Tim yelled back, equally angry. He had been honest in his song, sure, he had given it a humorous twist, but he had been honest about Bertie, the least Jonny could do was be honest about the name of his native planet.</p><p>Jonny crossed his arms and frowned as he said: “Well, maybe I’ve lost my accent over the years that happens.”</p><p>“Bullshit.” Tim told him, he turned to the others and asked: “You don’t believe him do you?”</p><p>Most of the others didn’t really care, they were just waiting for one to shoot the other so that they could move on. Nastya was a bit too tired for their fighting today and said: “Well, Jonny didn’t have an accent when I met him.”</p><p>That earned her a betrayed glare from Jonny and a victorious smile from Tim, who said: “See, you’re lying. Besides, Nastya still has her accent.”</p><p>“Yeah and Nastya was a princess with a big enough vocabulary.” Jonny pouted, nearly inaudible, and although Tim couldn’t make out what he had said, he did hear that Jonny had said something, so he demanded: “What did you say?”</p><p>“I said nothing.” Jonny spit back.</p><p>“No, I heard you say something. If you have something to say, say it.” Tim told him.</p><p>Jonny roared back: “I said it was none of your fucking business.”</p><p>Tim took an unconscious step back at the sudden anger, but he also wasn’t about to let Jonny walk all over him, so he just shouted: “Well, you should know that is rude to whisper in company, if you aren’t going to share it with the group, you shouldn’t say it at all.”</p><p>That earned him some looks from the other Mechanisms, he himself didn’t know where it came from either, having forgotten his mother a long time ago, but Jonny was too angry to care and repeated himself loudly: “I said: Yeah and Nastya was a princess with a big enough vocabulary.”</p><p>His chest heaved and on his face was a snarl as the whole crew fell silent after his outburst.</p><p>A guilty feeling started to grow in Tims gut when he’d put enough pieces together to figure out, who’s fault it had probably been that Jonny didn’t have an accent anymore. He wanted to say something, maybe even apologize despite being notorious for not doing that, when Jonny said: “Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway.”</p><p>It was obviously self-defense that made him dismiss the entire thing. He said something about needing a smoke, before walking out the practice area with more haste than necessary.</p><p>“I fucked up.” Tim said slowly after a minute of tense silence had passed.</p><p>The others agreed. Nastya commented: “Yes, quite, I’ve almost never seen him that upset over anything.”</p><p>Nastya could remember the last time she’d seen him like that, it was soon after, well soon after the airlock incident. They’d gone into the old chambers of the former captain and found a newspaper clipping of the mysterious disappearance of one Jonathan Vangelis. She hadn’t seen him for a month.</p><p>“Maybe we should go check up on him?” Brian suggested, currently nice.</p><p>“I’ll go.” Tim said, he needed to make things right. He was a bastard and he was far from nice, but he wasn’t that kind of asshole.</p><p>He rushed after Jonny, hoping to stop him before he could reach his room and lock himself in there with enough ammunition and booze to last a mortal lifetime.</p><p>Tim arrived at Jonnys room with the door already locked. He could hear labored breathing and even small sobs coming from the other side of the door, the sound came from below, so Tim assumed Jonny was sitting on the ground and leaning against the door.</p><p>Swallowing Tim deliberated on how to proceed. Jonny was in a fragile state now, a state Tim wasn’t used to dealing with, so he’d had to be careful to not agitate or upset him further. </p><p>After a moment he knelt down and gently said: “Jonny? It’s Tim. I, uh, I came to check up on you?” he cringed at himself, not really good comfort talk there, Tim, he thought, “I wanted to apologize. For earlier. I shouldn’t have pushed. So I’m sorry for upsetting you.”</p><p>“‘M fine.” came through, muffled by the door.</p><p>“I know, you’re not.” Tim said. On one hand it might seem like he was pushing more, but on the other it wouldn’t do for Jonny to ignore this and be upset alone.</p><p>“You don’t get to decide that.” Jonny told him.</p><p>“I could hear you crying, Jonny.” Tim replied, “You don’t have to tell me why it made you so upset, but you don’t have to pretend not to be.”</p><p>“It’s stupid anyway.” Jonny said.</p><p>“Why is it stupid?” Tim asked him, glad to have a conversation at least.</p><p>“Well, it’s just an accent, nothing upsetting or anything.” Jonny answered.</p><p>“But it did make you upset, so there’s obviously more to the story.” Tim pushed, god he was sounding like Brian.</p><p>“It’s not like it’s important, just forget it.” Jonny told him.</p><p>Tim resolved that he would make Jonny talk about this, it wasn’t healthy to keep things like that bottled up (and now he was sounding like Marius, god what it day this had become). So he sat down and said: “I’m not leaving until you’re feeling better.”</p><p>“Fine, then I feel better, now leave.” Jonny sounded annoyed.</p><p>“I don’t think you are.” Tim replied.</p><p>“What do you want from me?” there was still a bite in Jonnys voice, but he also sounded relieved.</p><p>Tim thought about that for a moment, then he slowly said: “Maybe you can talk to me? Tell me what’s bothering you so I won’t accidentally bring it up again? Or just talk about nothing until you feel better? I am really sorry and I’d like to make it up to you, please?”</p><p>It was quiet for a moment, then softly the door unlocked. Tim stood up and waited until the door slid open. The makeup on Jonnys face was streaked down his cheeks and he looked miserable. He looked Tim up and down and asked: “Promise not to tell the others?”</p><p>“I promise.” Tim concurred.</p><p>“I really am from New Texas.” Jonny told him, “Had a heavy accent and everything, but, uhm, she-” he didn’t have to put emphasis on it for Tim to know who, “she thought it sounded uneducated.”</p><p>“I’m so sorry, Jonny.” Tim said, stepping forwards to pull him into a hug.</p><p>Jonny just clutched at him and started crying again. The tears soaked Tims into shirt and the makeup smudged leaving dark stains, but he didn’t let go. After a while Jonny hiccuped through the sobs: “I- I don’t even- even know, why- why I’m so- so upset about i- it.” he swallowed heavily and went on: “I’m not- I’m not even in the- the mood to sho- shoot my own brain- brains out. I just- I just want some p- peace, want to- to forget.”</p><p>Tim rubbed Jonnys back and murmured into the top of his head: “It’s alright, it’s sometimes the little things are the ones that hurt the most.”</p><p>He knew that Jonny could joke about a lot of traumatic things, everyone on the Aurora could, but sometimes there were little things that just were too much. Tim himself could joke about war and blowing up the moon and everything, but he could not joke about Monopoly, which had been Berties favorite game.</p><p>When Jonny had calmed himself a bit he untangled himself from Tims arms and rubbed his eyes aggressively. He looked like a raccoon with the black marks all around his eyes, a tired and angry raccoon. He pointed at Tim and said: “If you break your promise, I swear that I will leave on an asteroid.”</p><p>“I won’t.” Tim promised again, raising his hands. He knew that with the conversation they’d had before he went looking for Jonny, none would dare to bring it up again.</p><p>“Good.” Jonny shot him a suspicious glare, but seemed to believe him.</p><p>“Jonny.” Tim called out when Jonny had started to walk away to clean his face and redo his makeup.</p><p>Jonny turned around and raised a questioning brow. Tim said: “For what it’s worth, I think you sound just fine no matter what, you have a perfectly good vocabulary.”</p><p>Tim thought it would earn him a bullet in the brain, but Jonny actually smiled at him, before schooling his features and hurrying away down the hall.</p><p>When Tim returned to the practice area the others were still there strumming familiar tunes of songs already written. They stopped when he entered and Nastya asked: “Is he okay? What happened?”</p><p>“I think he’s fine now.” Tim answered her, “I don’t know if he’ll return today, but he probably will be here tomorrow.”</p><p>“Are we keeping his song?” Ashes asked, getting to the point.</p><p>“Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with it.” Tim replied.</p><p>“Good.” Brian said, picking up his drumsticks again.</p><p>In the end Jonny did join them again that day. He was a bit more subdued than normal, but he had enough opinions and quips for the others not to worry. Most of them never did figure out the full story behind Jonnys outburst, but Tim did smile when he heard Jonny use ‘All y’alls’ a few years later.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hoped you enjoyed this, I'm still a bit unsure about the characters and stuff, so constructive critisism is welcome, if I did anything too out of charater or something :)</p><p>Kudos and Comments are the best, so thank you if you left any!</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27858226">Authentic</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/schrijverr/pseuds/schrijverr">schrijverr</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
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